A passionate user evangelizes for LinkedIn

A couple of years ago three books about using LinkedIn were published at about the same time. Then, about 30 million professionals use used the networking service; now the figure is more than 90 million.

In the book LinkedIn for Recruiting nearly 50 professional recruiters contributed comments, short case studies, and testimonials about using LinkedIn to locate job candidates. Even if you’re not a recruiter, this book is interesting as it provides insight into how recruiters think. 42 Rules for 24-hour Success on LinkedIn is a good starter book for general readers as well as recruiters. In 7 sections, the authors discuss what LinkedIn offers, how to create a strong profile, how to build your network, how to manage recommendations, how to raise awareness of yourself by posting and answering questions, how to search the LinkedIn database, and how to create or join an affinity group. Jason Alba’s I’m on LinkedIn, Now What? aims at the individual user. He discusses LinkedIn contacts as a source of knowledge about business and political issues, career management, job leads, and consulting opportunities. He recommends using LinkedIn for “your personal branding strategy,” a theme that informs the book.

Now I can I can recommend Wayne Breitbarth’s new book, Power Formula for LinkedIn Success. It has the advantage of being more up to date, obviously, but beyond that, Brietbarth is a passionate Super User. He has taught more than 120 classes on using LinkedIn and he’s now out on a book promo tour. He uses the tool to its max, uploading videos and documents and how to’s and polls. And he shares his secrets here.

His central message is that your power as a LinkedIn user comes from your unique set of experiences and your unique set of relationships.

Generally speaking, the more LinkedIn connections you have, the more you’ll benefit. But Breitbarth emphasizes, as do others, that you should limit your network to people you really know and trust. If you have 500 connections and don’t really know most of them, are you really in a position to make many honest referrals? How many of those 500 can you really ask for help? And consider that when you add a connection on LinkedIn, you are essentially handing over your Outlook database to that person. You hope he or she will treat it professionally.

Among his many recommendations for LinkedIn users are to check the keywords in your profile and add to, or focus, the keywords, to make you more searchable. He recommends listing every job you have ever held and to detail what you accomplished, what experience you gained, and any awards received. List all your volunteer positions. Get more recommendations from colleagues present and past, and realize that even the words in recommendations are keyword searchable.

Use more applications. Post books to the reading list, point to your SlideShare presentations, post documents to Box.net and list your upcoming Events, whether presenting or attending.

Did you know that LinkedIn allows you to save your searches? And if you wish, LinkedIn will notify you whenever a new person who meets your search criteria has been found in your network. Breitbarth also recommends joining LinkedIn Groups, and lots of them—up to 50. Your membership will increase your visibility and will help you find others with similar interests.

Breitbarth conducts a semiannual poll about how people use LinkedIn, and here he shares the results in Top 10 list.

With more people using mobile apps, I would have enjoyed reading a discussion of using the LinkedIn app. But that will appear in the next edition, I’ll bet.